LEGO Renewable Energy Set Provides Fun Method of Green Education

Pre-adolescent architects love to wile away their time building Millennium Falcons and Batcaves with LEGO sets (and, admit it, so do all you adults out there), but the LEGO Education Set, a line of everyone’s favorite colored blocks aimed at edutainment, has come up with something more productive than piecing together stately Wayne Manor. Introducing the Renewable Energy Set, a LEGO-themed manner of exploring wind, solar, and hydro energy sources.

Designed to work in tandem with the Simple & Motorized Mechanism Set, the Renewable Energy Set allows budding builders to “investigate energy supply, transfer, accumulation, conversion, and consumption,” according to Green Diary. Each set comes with instructions on how to build a solar-powered car and wind turbine. When connected to a NXT Brick, the set’s solar power, generator, and LEGO Energy Meter elements function as sensors, thereby permitting users to measure and analyze the renewable energy sources.

Image via LEGO Education

Of course, like many devices that incorporate renewable energy technology, the LEGO Renewable Energy Set is a bit pricey: $99.95 for the set alone, not to mention the price of the NXT Brick and mandatory Simple & Motorized Mechanism Set. Still, the set arguably provides a more entertaining forum for renewable energy than a hefty textbook.